New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD In the Palm of Your Hand 123
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ScuttleMonkey
from the melts-in-your-mouth dept.
from the melts-in-your-mouth dept.
Engadget has a recent teaser video promising HD content via XBMC running on a 600MHz Beagleboard. This could mean great things for home theater putterers, with the Beagleboard tipping the scales at a modest $150 and the ability to fit in the palm of your hand. Already running on everything from MIDs to AppleTVs and now moving to ARM-powered devices like the Beagleboard, it looks like XBMC needs to be renamed from "Xbox Media Center" to "ubiquitous media center."
Re:Cheapest (Score:5, Informative)
Small Correction: (Score:5, Informative)
The Beagleboard runs at 500Mhz, not 600Mhz (they underclock the processor for reliability. I have one btw)
Re:Cheapest (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cheapest (Score:4, Informative)
Hardware Decoder...
Right now people are working on getting the CrystalHD from Broadcom working under OS X and Linux. Supposedly they can't release it for NDA reasons. [xbmc.org]
Then there is also VDPAU. I know there isn't an ARM port (YET!). Feature Set C decodes nearly everything in HD. I was playing 1080p with 10% CPU.
There are a ton of those set top box devices from WD and other companies that advertise to 1080P with a small fanless device.
Mine cost me $85 (Score:5, Informative)
If you don't have a spare old computer around, or you want to buy a complete solution, basically any of the "Ion-based" nettops should be cheap, tiny and get the job done. There's tons out there, and you can even get one from System76 that already has Ubuntu installed ( http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=95 [system76.com] ) at which point you only need to add the XBMC PPA to the repository list, click install and apply, and voila, a tiny cheap machine capable of 1080p video. For some anecdotal evidence on how easily these setups can run you can hunt around the XBMC forums a bit. Basically the key is just to get any kind of machine with a GeForce 8-or-later card in it, and the newer ones have even more features as far as using VDPAU is concerned.
Re:Cheapest (Score:5, Informative)
The processor on the board, a OMAP3530, also has a ~500mhz C64x+ DSP and a POWERVR SGX video accellerator. There is plenty of power on it.
Re:Cheapest (Score:2, Informative)
A recent Lifehacker article [lifehacker.com] suggested the $200 Acer Aspire Revo [newegg.com]. Pros: 160GB HD, HMDI output, Gigabit ethernet, reportably plays 1080p, runs XBMC. Cons: single-core, 1GB RAM, no built-in expandability, WiFi or IR.
For $320, the Revo's big brother [newegg.com] also has dual-core, 2GB RAM and built-in WiFi.
Re:Didn't XBMC drop the Xbox support awhile ago? (Score:3, Informative)
Someone is still making nightly builds: http://sshcs.com/xbmc/ [sshcs.com]
It's getting almost all the same new features and bug fixes as everything else. From what I understand it is one massive main source trunk. Everything platform specific is taken care of by #if statements and the config script.
Points wrong/missing in summary (Score:5, Informative)
2. Discussion about XBMC on ARM with a lot more background info is going on here in the official forum: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35139&page=14 [xbmc.org]
3. You might want to link to the first source i.e. the official xbmc webpage: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2009/10/23/xbmc-on-arm-gles-2-0/ [xbmc.org]
4. XBMC is not called Xbox Media Center anymore, just XBMC.
Re:How does this compare to a Popcorn Hour? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other hardware like this (Score:1, Informative)
You could look at www.embeddedarm.com.
They have x86 and ARM single board computers. The TS-3000 line uses 386 processors. They have serial ports and many IO lines.
They don't mention it in the advertising, but I see some headers marked "JTAG" on the 386 boards. That's a little bit out of my area of expertise, but maybe that's what you're looking for?
I considered getting one of the ARM board to make a very small web server, but the prices seemed a little bit high, and I decided to go with an old, cheap, used desktop PC instead.
It might be worth a look anyway, hope that helps.
This is nowhere near the cheapes media center (Score:3, Informative)
WD LIVE blows this away, and has better playback....
A much better bang for the buck.
http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735 [wdc.com]
Re:Cheapest - Under $300 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cheapest - Under $300 (Score:3, Informative)
XBMC is a media player only. If you want to record TV, you still need Myth. If you don't, XBMC is roughly 325 million times easier to set up and use.